Ukrainian Defense Minister Alexei Reznikov on Friday signed an order approving the regulations on the Public Anti-Corruption Council under the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.
“The newly established consultative and advisory body, after holding an open nationwide vote for candidates on the platform of the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption and after determining the winners who will join the anti-corruption council, should ensure transparent activities of the Ministry of Defense and civilian control. Among other things, the list of tasks of the council includes analysis of corruption risks, prevention and counteraction to corruption, establishing interaction of the Ministry of Defense with public associations and other civil society institutions,” the website of the Ministry of Defense said on Saturday.
The Anti-Corruption Council is created on the basis of an open and transparent competition of 15 members for a one year term. Its activity provides for public participation in the formation of anti-corruption measures in the Defense Ministry of Ukraine. The composition of the council is approved based on the results of the competition. Candidates for participation can be nominated by public associations, state registration of which took place at least two years before the day of announcement of the competition and the statutory activity of which is related to prevention and counteraction to corruption.
“The Public Anti-Corruption Council is endowed with an exhaustive list of tools, which are sufficient to exclude any corrupt practices. It can create expert groups, involve specialists, and the regulation of the council’s activity provides for a wide range of actions. I am sure that the anti-corruption council will not only improve the work within the ministry, but also strengthen the foundation of public trust. Both the former and the latter are extremely important moments for achieving Ukraine’s main strategic goal – to win the war,” Reznikov said.
Newly elected Czech President Petr Pavel plans to visit neighboring countries in the first 100 days, a visit to Ukraine is planned for April, the Czech publication Ceske Noviny reported.
According to the newspaper, Paul intends to visit all neighboring countries within 100 days after his election as head of state. Also in the plans for April includes a visit to Ukraine.
The media noted that Pavel showed interest in visiting Ukraine soon after he was elected the new president of the Czech Republic. He said that he would like to visit Kiev together with Slovak President Zuzana Chaputova. In late January, Pavel was invited by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenski, who in a phone conversation thanked Pavel for his support of Ukraine. Pavel asked the Ukrainian side about the date of the visit in February.
It is noted that with his trips abroad Paul wants to show that the Czech Republic has returned to an active approach in foreign policy at the presidential level. “I don’t expect to have to go anywhere else during this period, because I really consider our neighborhood a priority,” Ceske Noviny quoted Pavel as saying.
Net loss of insurance company “Zaliznychny Shlyahy” (Poltava) in 2022 increased by 14.2% up to UAH 13,571 mln, reported in materials for the agenda of shareholders meeting scheduled for April, 3.
It is also noted that assets of the company grew by 2.9% up to UAH 56.173 mln.
Equity capital decreased by 4.6% to UAH 36.6 million, cash and cash equivalents increased by 17.9% to UAH 19.8 million, current liabilities remained almost the same as a year before – UAH 5.921 million.
Accounts receivable have grown by 6,7% following the results of the year – up to UAH 2,748 mln.
The authorized capital of the insurer has remained at the level of UAH 21,3 mln.
IC “Zaliznychny Shlyahy” was registered in 1994, it specializes in providing services in the field of risk insurance.
The situation at customs can be significantly improved in a year by implementing six key steps, including common bases with the EU and joint checkpoints, electronic queues, rotations, scanners and digitalization, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal said at a press conference in Kiev on Friday.
“I have a clear understanding of what the state needs to do now at customs, and we are actually on that path. I voiced it, there are five or six steps. The first one is to enter into a common database system with the EU,” said the prime minister.
He explained that it will allow to load a car in any point of Europe, to take a single customs declaration and to transit with it through any checkpoint in any city of Ukraine and to clear customs by this single declaration.
Shmygal noted that now Ukraine gets access to certain sections of this register, but the base of the customs value remains closed for the time being.
“Now we are working with the European Commission on a political decision to open full access to the joint registers of databases of Europe, to make 99% impossible as an element of abuse through customs mechanisms,” – said Prime Minister.
The second step he called increasing the number of checkpoints with joint control and with shared databases, as currently there is only one such checkpoint, built for “Euro 2012” in the Lviv region.
The third element of the reform, according to Shmygal, is the rotation of employees. “Why are there temptations at customs? Because when people work long in one place, there is an opportunity to see and negotiate. We have to overcome this temptation,” said the prime minister.
Shmygal stressed that scanners will be an important innovation, because they are necessary for the implementation of the fifth element – the risk-oriented system, which will reduce the proportion of goods subject to customs and border control to 7%. Reliable exporters and importers will only need to check the car on the scanner to confirm the absence of drugs or migrants, explained the head of the government.
The sixth element the prime minister indicated digitalization, namely the introduction of electronic queuing. According to him, the implemented experiment with the electronic queue at the Krakowiec point is a success, and now the state plans to extend it to all points.
“I would call all of these approaches the Six Elements of Customs Reform. They are all simple, but they will practically eliminate the possibility of corrupt influences at customs at all. We are working on this now, there is a team solution. It cannot be done in a day or a month, but it can be done in a year,” explained Shmygal.
Speaking about personnel decisions, he pointed out that formally State Customs Service is within the competence of the Ministry of Finance. “But I do not want to and I can’t put the responsibility on the Minister of Finance, because this is a joint responsibility of the government team,” said the prime minister.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has announced cooperation with three major Ukrainian agricultural holdings to develop their grain export and storage infrastructure, with total investments in the project totaling $44 million.
According to CNN’s website, the three companies are large Ukrainian agricultural producers Kernel, Nibulon and Grain Alliance.
It is specified that the cooperation with the companies will help increase Ukraine’s capacity to ship over 3 million tons of grain to foreign markets per year. Investments will be used to develop the infrastructure of agricultural products storage and expansion of elevators.
“This announcement is part of a deliberate effort by the Biden administration to develop Ukraine’s economy and mitigate the global food security crisis that escalated after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” the publication specified in the report.
As earlier reported, before the war Kernel was the world’s number one producer and exporter of sunflower oil (about 7% of world production) and was the largest producer and seller of bottled sunflower oil in Ukraine. The company was also engaged in cultivation and sale of other agricultural products.
In FY2022 (July-2021 – June-2022), the holding posted a net loss of $41 mln versus $506 mln net profit in the previous FY. Its revenue decreased by 5% to $5.332 bln, and EBITDA decreased by 3.7 times to $220 mln.
Nibulon, one of the largest grain market operators in Ukraine, on April 15, 2022 received the permit from Izmail city council (Odessa region) for the construction of the terminal for handling grain cargoes on the land plot with the total area of 20 hectares.
“Nibulon” was established in 1991. Before Russian military invasion grain trader had 27 transshipment terminals and complexes to receive the crops, the capacities for one-time storage of 2,25 mln. tons of agroindustrial complex products, fleet of 83 vessels (including 23 tugs), and also owned Nikolaev shipyard.
“Nibulon” before the war worked 82 thousand hectares of land in 12 regions of Ukraine and exported agricultural products to more than 70 countries.
The grain trader exported maximum 5.64 million tons of agricultural products in 2021, reaching record volumes of deliveries to foreign markets in August – 0.7 million tons, the fourth quarter – 1.88 million tons and in the second half of the year – 3.71 million tons.
Grain Alliance Agro Holding in spring 2022 purchased a grain logistics hub near the border of Ukraine and Slovakia to deliver agricultural products by land bypassing Ukrainian ports, the throughput capacity of which was significantly reduced due to the full-scale Russian military invasion. The transshipment capacity of the grain terminal in Černá nad Tysou (Slovakia) will be up to 400,000 tons per year.
Before the war, Grain Alliance farmed 57,000 hectares in Kyiv, Poltava, Chernigov and Cherkasy regions, grew more than 300,000 tons of grain and oilseeds a year, and owned more than a thousand head of cattle.
Agroholding has six granaries in Ukraine with a total capacity of over 260 thousand tons.
The founders of Harvest Moon East LLC (Baryshevka village, Kyiv region) and BZK Grain Alliance (Sweden) established a joint company, Grain Alliance, in 2009.
Employees of the Cyber Police Department together with the investigation department of the Kyiv region police and bank security officers have exposed a group of malefactors who issued credit cards and loans to servicemen who had been captured or considered missing, the press service of the National Police of Ukraine reported.
“It was established that three people received data on mobile numbers of military personnel with whom their relatives have lost contact or are in captivity. Attackers carried out the reissue of SIM-cards and checked whether the reissued numbers are financial. Then they gained access to online banking. From the accounts of defenders transferred the balance of money, as well as issued credit cards and embezzled loan amounts”, – was stated in the report.
According to preliminary data, the group managed to get access to mobile numbers of more than 20 servicemen in captivity or missing. The total amount of damage is more than 2 million hryvnias.
During a search in the homes of the defendants law enforcement officers seized bank cards, SIM-cards, cell phones, which were used in illegal activities.
Also police found grenades. They were sent for examination.
The organizer of the criminal group was detained. He is suspected under part 3 of article 190 (fraud) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
After the events will be provided legal qualification of the actions of all defendants.
